


Regard

by A_Queer_In_Spaceland



Category: Star Trek
Genre: Background Kirk/Spock - Freeform, F/F, Fellas is it gay to call your Lab Partner fascinating every second thought?, Fluffy and sweet, Guess which oc is more of a self insert, I misuse my biomed degree to write this, It's not stalking to read every paper someone's ever written it's academic, Lab partners to girlfriends, OC/OC - Freeform, Vulcan/human, gay science
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-11-22 09:37:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20872082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Queer_In_Spaceland/pseuds/A_Queer_In_Spaceland
Summary: You ever fallen in love with your lab partner? yeah neither has T'Selen, but that might just change.A indulgent one shot about a Vulcan and Starfleet scientist because I'm a lesbian microbiologist and sometimes you have to write about what you know and love.





	Regard

The woman is short. No shorter than the average human perhaps, standing at five feet, two inches, but to T'Selen's personal standards the woman is short. Her lab coat is an off-white colour, as if it's been repeatedly washed instead of just ionically sterilised. A strand of black hair clings to the coat and T'Selen resists the impulse to remove it. The woman does not require T'Selen's grooming, she introduces herself with a shaky Ta’al and a passable attempt at the traditional Vulcan greeting as Dr. Genevieve Valles, Senior Microbe Researcher. 

T'Selen returns the pleasantry. "T'Selen of House Soval, Xenomicrobiologist." 

The human smiles brightly, pink lips spreading across a round face and crinkling the corners of olive eyes. T'Selen takes a gentle breath. She is a lovely creature. T'Selen's measure of her goes up as the doctor quickly shoos her escort and dives into the details of the paper T'Selen published mere days before leaving the Vulcan Science Academy for Earth. 

==

_Keep it together Gen_. The Doctor tells herself as the Vulcan she'd been academically stalking these past years sweeps into the room. She's tall and there is a gravity to her presence that threatens to short circuit Gen’s brain. _Lord above she’s even more gorgeous in person_.

“Doctor Valles,” Gen’s heart skips a beat as the way T’Selen shapes the sounds of her name. It’s like music almost.

“Please T’Selen, call me Gen.” It’s half to be friendly, but mostly to shorten the amount of vowels Gen’s heart skips over.

“Gen,” T’Selen acquiesces – and god the less vowels plan really isn’t working – before she asks Gen’s opinion on _Apissa myconidae_’s gene transfer which sparks a three-hour debate between the two. 

==

"Could you-" Gen starts to say, reaching towards a vial just out of her reach as T'Selen moves to pass it to her.

T'Selen jumps back. A rush of excitement-joy-focus zaps across the quick press of skin through gloves. 

"Oh I'm so sorry, the gloves I thought-" 

"There is no offence taken when none intended, nor no harm done Doctor."

"I didn't hurt you did I?" 

"No Doctor, merely a brush of a psi-point. I believe I owe you an apology for intruding within your mind -no matter how shallow."

Genevieve smiles at her, seemingly placated that she had not inflicted damage, yet a blush is high on her round cheeks. "There is no offence taken when none intended." 

T'Selen offers her the vial with a small quirk of her lips. _She is an interesting human._

==

They'd been toiling together for weeks now, working through the experimental design and drafting their proposal and it was finally done, submitted and sent off for approval. 

"A celebration! To relax before the work begins anew!" 

T'Selen did not know what to expect. She had feared duty and the Doctor's unfairly enthralling enthusiasm would drag her to a den of inequity and pulsing music. Instead she found herself in a rec room with a handful of the lab denizens that operated on the periphery of her own research. 

And a lightly tipsy Genevieve siting close but not close enough to touch beside her on the couch. 

"Okay okay okay, your work perfecting _H.melforia_ colony amplification? It made my whole thesis possible I basically owe my PhD to you T'Selen!" 

"Doctor-"

"Gen." She corrects leaning closer.

"Gen," T'Selen amends, "I am sure you would have managed it without my addition, although I am gratified to have been able to assist you however marginally." 

Gen looks at her for a long moment and then throws her arms up and addresses the room, "See!" Two others nods solemnly. T'Selen chalks it up to 'Human Idiosyncrasy’ and doesn't dwell on it for much longer, too distracted by the warmth of Genevieve's body resting lightly against her.

T'Selen's breath might hitch if she was less in control. She strengthens her shields but realises with shock that she doesn't need to. There is no emotional bleed over from Genevieve instead all she gets is a quiet and reserved hum of emotion. If T'Selen digs, she's sure she could tease out the details, but she doesn't and instead simply basks in the erratic but gentle ripples of activity from Genevieve.

_How _– T’Selen stops at a loss for the right word. _Pleasant? Strange? _

_Fascinating_. She settles on. 

==

"T'Selen, you and Dr. Valles are working well?" The Admiral's eyes sparkle in a way that unsettled T'Selen. It is as if he knows something she does not, and is waiting for her to catch up. 

"Indeed Admiral, I find our working relationship most efficient. Dr. Valles is a credit to Starfleet" T'Selen can't help the gentle way her voice shapes Gen's name and there is an almost careful lilt to the Terran vowels. 

"That she is." That knowing sparkle is back in the Admiral's eyes. "The transition from the VSA to Starfleet can be jarring, Terran culture is...social, in a way Vulcan is not, how are you adjusting?"

T'Selen is taken aback but she responds honestly, "It was unusual, however Dr. Valles is an exception and I find her a grounding presence." 

"Indeed. That is good news, have you informed the doctor of your regard for her?"

"My regard?" 

The Admiral looks at her gently. "Yes, otherwise you may spend several more years pining for her before making a move as my husband did." 

"Admiral Kirk this is most-" 

"Inappropriate, I'm sure. Meditate on it T'Selen, you may surprise yourself." The Admiral says, waving her towards the door, "Both my door and Professor Spock's are open should you require anything." 

T'Selen is halfway down the hall when she realises, she's blushing. Yes, she should meditate. 

==

"I have been told it is a misstep on my part to not express my regard for you in plain terms Dr. Valles," T'Selen says. Her gaze darts away from Gen but her straight back and stoic posture give no hint of her apprehension. 

Gen stares up at the Vulcan looming over her lunch table. To her left a gaggle of cadets lean in trying to better eavesdrop but Gen doesn't notice them, she's often left oblivious in the wake of her Vulcan lab-mate. 

"I appreciate that T'Selen, I also hold your work in high regard, and please, call me Gen" she says smiling at her. The Vulcan frowns. 

"Whilst your work is impeccable Doc-Gen it is not that which I refer to now. I hold your person in high regard, and it is my wish express this regard to you outside of our working relationship." T'Selen has drifted closer now and Gen's fork speared high with dressing drenched leaves is set down. 

A sad smile crosses her face, "I personally hold you in high regard as well, please sit," 

T'Selen frowns again, a mere flattening of her lips, but the Vulcan sits. 

"I have frustrated you?" Gen asks confused, a hand reaching out to touch T'Selen's sleeve -mindful not to touch her skin. 

"No, I believe I am at fault." T'Selen says. "Dr." She stops. "Gen," her brown eyes are trained on Gen and the scientist feels like an insect pinned under a heat lamp -warm but exposed. "I regard you highly as a prospective romantic partner." 

Gen's eyes widen. The warmth spreads along her body, starting in her chest and flooding each and every crevice of her being. _She likes me back. Holy shit._

"You needn't concern yourself with how your rejection of my offer will affect our working relationship, I assure you I will remain fully professional until the time of my departure, but I also understand if you find this an unwelcome advance and-" 

Gen presses her fingertips to the back of T'Selen's hand -right over the psi-point she explained that first day in the lab. 

"Oh." T'Selen says as the flood of elation-affection-joy-relief tumbles through her touch telepathy from Gen. 

"Oh." Gen confirms softly. 

==

**Author's Note:**

> Having a crush on your lab-partner is gay scientist culture. Having a crush on Vulcan ladies is my culture. 
> 
> Does this count as self-insert?


End file.
